There is known a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP, Chemical Mechanical Polishing) apparatus that polishes a surface of a substrate when a semiconductor device is manufactured. The CMP apparatus includes a polishing pad attached on a top surface of a polishing table, thereby forming a polishing surface. In this CMP apparatus, a polishing target surface of the substrate held by a top ring is pressed against the polishing surface, and the polishing table and the top ring rotates while supplying slurry as polishing liquid to the polishing surface. As a result, the polishing surface and the polishing target surface are slidably moved relative to each other, by which the polishing target surface is polished.
In recent years, the planarization technique including the CMP has been facing expansion of a variety of possible polishing target materials, and also has been subject to requirements that has been becoming increasingly stricter with respect to a polishing capability thereof (for example, flatness, a damage incurred from the polishing, and further, productivity). Under such circumstances, new planarization methods also have been proposed, and one of them is catalyst referred etching (Catalyst Referred Etching: hereinafter referred to as CARE). According to the CARE method, reactive species are produced from processing liquid that reacts with the polishing target surface only around a catalyst material in the presence of the processing liquid. Then, bringing the catalyst material and the polishing target surface into proximity to or contact with each other allows an etching reaction to selectively occur on the polishing subject surface on a surface located in proximity to or in contact with the catalyst material. For example, for a rough polishing target surface, bringing protrusions and the catalyst material into proximity to or contact with each other allows the protrusions to be selectively etched, thereby succeeding in the planarization of the polishing subject surface. Originally, this CARE method has been proposed for the purpose of planarizing next-generation substrate materials that used to be difficult to be highly efficiently planarized by the CMP due to their chemical stability, such as Sic and GaN (for example, the following patent literatures, PTL 1 to PTL 4). However, in recent years, the CARE method has been confirmed to be also usable to process a silicon dioxide film and the like, and has opened a possibility of being able to be employed even for a currently prevailing silicon substrate material (for example, the following patent literature, PTL 5).